1915
1915 (
MCMXV) was a
common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).
*
January 12 - The
Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the
U.S. Congress.
*
January 12 -
United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote.
*
January 13 – An earthquake (6.8 in Richter scale) in
Avezzano,
Italy - 32.610 dead
*
January 19 -
George Claude patents the
neon discharge tube for use in
advertising.
*
January 19 - German
zeppelins bomb the cities of
Great Yarmouth and
King's Lynn in the
United Kingdom for the first time, killing more than 20.
*
January 21 -
Kiwanis International is founded in
Detroit, Michigan.
*
January 27 - Chinese president
Yuan Shikai declares himself Emperor
*
January 28 - An act of the
U.S. Congress creates the
United States Coast Guard.
*
January 31 -
World War I:
Germany uses
poison gas against
Russians.
*
February 8 - The controversial film
The Birth of a Nation by
D.W. Griffith premieres (
Los Angeles, California).
*
February 12 - In
Washington, DC the first stone of the
Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
*
March 3 -
NACA, the predecessor of
NASA, is founded.
*
March 14 -
World War I: Off the coast of
Chile, the
Royal Navy sinks the German battleship
SMS Dresden.
*
March 14 -
Britain,
France and
Russia agree to give
Constantinople and the
Bosporus to Russia in case of victory (the treaty is later nullified by the Bolshevik revolution)
*
March 18 - World War I:
British attack on the
Dardanelles fails.
*
March 19 -
Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a
planet.
*
March 25 -
US submarine F-4 sinks off
Hawaii - 21 dead
*
March 28 - The first
Roman Catholic Liturgy is celebrated by
Archbishop John Ireland at the newly consecrated
Cathedral of Saint Paul in
Saint Paul,
Minnesota.
*
April 13 -
Mexican Revolution -
Pancho Villa's attack against
Alvaro Obregon's troops in
Celaya. Charge of Villa's troops is no match against Obregon's
barbed wire and
machine guns
*
April 22 -
World War I:
Second Battle of Ypres -
German troops introduce
poison gas at
Ypres,
Belgium.
*
April 24 - The
Ottoman Empire arrests hundreds of
Armenian intellectuals, executing most. Armenians mark this as the start of the
Armenian Genocide and commemorate the anniversary.
*
April 25 - The
Anzac tradition begins during
World War I with a landing at
Gallipoli on the
Turkish coast.
*
April 30 -
Australian
submarine AE2 sunk in
Sea of Marmara.
*
May 3 -
John McCrae writes
In Flanders Fields*
May 7 -
World War I: The
RMS Lusitania is sunk by a
German U-boat killing 1,198.
*
May 9 - World War I:
Second Battle of Artois -
German and
French forces fight.
*
May 17 - The last purely
Liberal government in the United Kingdom ends when Prime Minister
Herbert Henry Asquith forms an all party coalition.
*
May 22 -
Quintinshill railway disaster,
Scotland, UK. 200 killed.
*
May 23 -
World War I:
Italy joins the
Allies after they declare war on
Austria-Hungary.
*
June 3 - Troops of Obregon and Villa clash at
León. Obregon loses his right arm in grenade attack but Villa is decisively defeated
*
June 9 - U.S. Secretary of State
William Jennings Bryan resigns over a disagreement regarding his nation's handling of the
RMS Lusitania sinking.
*
June 16 - Foundation of the
British Women's Institute*
July 7 - An extremely overloaded
Great Gorge and International Railway trolley with 157 passengers crashes near
Queenston, Ontario resulting in 15 casualties.
*
July 24 - The steamer
Eastland capsizes in central
Chicago, Illinois, with the loss of 845 lives.
*
July 28 -
United States occupation of Haiti begins
*
August 5 –
23 - Hurricane Two of the
1915 Atlantic hurricane season over
Galveston and
New Orleans – 275 dead
*
August 6 - World War I:
Battle of Sari Bair begins - The
Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at
Suvla Bay.
*
August 16 - The Entente promises the
Kingdom of Serbia, should victory be achieved over
Austro-Hungary and its allied
Central Powers, the territories of Baranja, Srem and Slavonia from the Cisleithanian part of the Dual Monarchy; Bosnia and Herzegovina; and eastern 2/3 of Dalmatia (from the river of Krka to Bar).
*
August 17 -
Jewish American
Leo Frank is
lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in
Atlanta, Georgia.
*
September 6 - The first prototype
tank is tested for the
British Army for the first time.
*
September 7 - Former cartoonist John B. Gruelle is given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.
*
October 12 -
World War I:
British nurse
Edith Cavell is executed by a
German firing squad for helping
Allied soldiers escape from
Belgium.
*
October 19 - US recognizes
Mexican government of
Victoriano Carranza de facto (not
de jure until
1917)
*
October 27 -
William Morris Hughes becomes 7th
Prime Minister of Australia.
*
November 14 - Vision allegedly encountered by various military personnel in Europe at 22:30 hours, as recounted on the television series
One Step Beyond.
*
November 25 - The theory of
general relativity is formulated.
*
December 26 -
Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council decides to stage a rising on Easter Sunday
1916.
*
Alfred Wegener proposes the
theory of
Pangea.
* Emory College is rechartered as
Emory University, and plans to move its main campus from
Oxford, Georgia to
Atlanta.
*
Triangle Film Corporation was founded in the summer of this year
*
U.S. recognizes government of President
Venustiano Carranza of
Mexico.
*
Lord Beaverbrook buys the
London Daily Express.
* Automobile speed record of 102.6
m.p.h. set at
Sheepshead Bay,
N.Y.. by
Gil Anderson driving a
Stutz.
* The first
stop sign appears in
Detroit, Michigan.
*
Female suffrage in
Denmark and
Iceland*
Henri Désiré Landru begins his serial kills
*
Typhoid Mary isolated
Ongoing events
*
World War I (
1914-
1918)
Disputed Events
*
Assyrian Genocide (1914-1922)
*
Armenian Genocide (1915-
1918)
January
*
January 5 -
Arthur H. Robinson, American geographer and cartographer (d.
2004)
*
January 14 -
Mark Goodson, American television game show producer (d.
1992)
*
January 20 -
Ghulam Ishaq Khan,
President of Pakistan*
January 23 -
Arthur Lewis, British economist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1991)
*
January 24 -
Robert Motherwell, American painter (d.
1991)
*
January 30 -
Joachim Peiper, German SS officer (d.
1976)
*
January 30 -
John Profumo, British cabinet minister (d.
2006)
*
January 31 -
Alan Lomax, American folklorist and musicologist (d.
2002)
*
January 31 -
Thomas Merton, American monk and author (d.
1968)
February
*
February 1 -
Artur London, Czech statesman (d.
1986)
*
February 1 - Sir
Stanley Matthews, English footballer (d.
2000)
*
February 2 -
Khushwant Singh, Indian writer
*
February 4 - Sir
Norman Wisdom, English comedian, singer, and actor
*
February 5 -
Robert Hofstadter, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1990)
*
February 16 -
Jim O'Hora, American college football coach, (d.
2005)
*
February 28 -
Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1987)
March
*
March 4 -
Carlos Surinach, Spanish composer (d.
1997)
*
March 9 -
John Edgar "Johnnie" Johnson, English
WW2 pilot (d.
2001)
*
March 10 -
Harry Bertoia, Italian artist and designer (d.
1978)
*
March 11 -
Vijay Hazare, Indian cricketer (d.
2004)
*
March 14 -
Alexander Brott, Canadian conductor and composer (d.
2005)
*
March 20 -
Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian born Soviet pianist (d.
1997)
*
March 23 -
Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet sniper, World War II hero (d.
1991)
*
March 30 -
Arsenio Erico, Paraguayan footballer in Argentina (d.
1977)
*
March 31 -
Albert Hourani, English Middle Eastern historian (d.
1993)
April
*
April 4 -
Muddy Waters, American blues musician (d.
1983)
*
April 7 -
Billie Holiday, American jazz and blues singer (d.
1959)
*
April 21 -
Anthony Quinn, Mexican actor (d.
2001)
May
*
May 1 -
Krystyna Skarbek, Polish-born heroine of World War II (d.
1952)
*
May 1 -
Archie Williams, American athlete (d.
1993)
*
May 2 -
Doris Fisher, American singer and songwriter (d.
2003)
*
May 5 -
Alice Faye, American entertainer (d.
1998)
*
May 6 -
Orson Welles, American film director (d.
1985)
*
May 10 -
Denis Thatcher, husband of
Margaret Thatcher (d.
2003)
*
May 12 -
Frère Roger (Brother Roger) founder and prior of the Taizé Community (d.
2005)
*
May 15 -
Paul Samuelson, American economist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
May 20 -
Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader and politician (d.
1981)
*
May 26 -
Sam Edwards, American actor (d.
2004)
*
May 29 -
Karl Münchinger, German conductor (d.
1990)
June
*
June 1 -
John Randolph, American actor (d.
2004)
*
June 10 -
Saul Bellow, Canadian-born writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
2005)
*
June 15 -
Thomas Huckle Weller, American virologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine*
June 17 -
Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor (d.
1996)
*
June 20 -
Paul Castellano, American Gangster (d.
1985)
*
June 24 - Sir
Fred Hoyle, British astronomer (d.
2001)
July
*
July 7 -
Yul Brenner, Russian born American actor (d.
1985)
*
July 28 -
Charles Townes, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
July 28 -
Frankie Yankovic, American accordion player (d.
1998)
August
*
August 3 -
Pete Newell, Canadian born American college basketball coach
*
August 19 -
Ring Lardner Jr., American movie screenwriter (d.
2000)
*
August 22 -
Hugh Paddick, British actor (d.
2000)
*
August 27 -
Norman F. Ramsey, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
August 29 -
Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (d.
1982)
September
*
September 12 -
Frank McGee, reporter for NBC News and Today Show co-host (d.
1974)
*
September 15 -
Ethel Rosenberg, wife of Julius Rosenberg (d.
1953)
*
September 23 -
Julius Baker, American flutist for the New York Philharmonic (d.
2003)
*
September 23 -
Clifford Shull, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
2001)
*
September 30 -
Lester Maddox, Governor of Georgia (d.
2003)
October
*
October 9 -
Clifford M. Hardin, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
*
October 13 -
Terry Frost, English artist (d.
2003)
*
October 17 -
Arthur Miller, American playwright (d.
2005)
*
October 24 -
Bob Kane, American comic book creator (d.
1998)
*
October 24 -
Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (d.
1984)
*
October 29 -
William Berenberg, American physician (d.
2005)
November
*
November 9 -
André François, French cartoonist (d.
2005)
*
November 9 -
Sargent Shriver, American politician
*
November 11 -
William Proxmire, U.S. Senator (d.
2005)
*
November 12 -
Roland Barthes, French philosopher and literary critic (d.
1980)
*
November 14 -
Martha Tilton, British actress
*
November 19 -
Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., American physiologist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1974)
*
November 25 -
Augusto Pinochet,
President of Chile*
November 28 -
Evald Okas, Estonian painter
*
November 30 -
Brownie McGhee, American musician (d.
1996)
*
November 30 -
Henry Taube, Canadian-born chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
2005)
December
*
December 7 -
Eli Wallach, American actor
*
December 8 -
Ernest Lehman American screenwriter (d.
2005)
*
December 9 -
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-born soprano (d.
2006)
*
December 12 -
Frank Sinatra, American entertainer (d.
1998)
*
December 19 -
Édith Piaf, French singer (d.
1963)
*
December 27 -
Gyula Zsengellér, Hungarian footballer
Unknown dates
*
José Caballero,
Spanish painter (d.
1991)
*
January 14 -
Richard Meux Benson, founder of an
Anglican religious order (b.
1824)
*
January 15 -
Mary Slessor, Scottish Christian missionary (b.
1848)
*
February 5 -
Ross Barnes, baseball player (b.
1850)
*
March 4 -
William Willett, English inventor of Daylight Saving Time (b.
1856)
*
March 31 -
Wyndham Halswelle, Scottish runner (b.
1882)
*
April 16 -
Nelson W. Aldrich, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island (b.
1841)
*
April 23 -
Rupert Brooke, English poet (b.
1887)
*
July 2 -
Porfirio Díaz ,
President of Mexico (b.
1830)
*
July 16 -
Ellen G. White, American prophetess, co-founder of Seventh-Day Adventism (b.
1827)
*
August 20 -
Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1854)
*
August 26 -
John Bunny American silent film comedian (b.
1863)
*
September 9 -
Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (b.
1850)
*
September 13 -
Andrew L. Harris, American Civil War hero and Governor of Ohio (b.
1835)
*
October 12 -
Charles Sorley, British poet (b.
1895)
*
October 30 -
Charles Tupper,
Prime Minister of Canada (b.
1821)
*
November 15 -
Booker T. Washington, American educator (b.
1856)
*
November 28 -
Mubarak Al-Sabah,
Emir of Kuwait (b.
1896)
*
Chemistry -
Richard Willstätter*
Literature -
Romain Rolland*
Medicine - not awarded
*
Peace - not awarded
*
Physics -
William Henry Bragg and
William Lawrence Bragg
